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Impact of Essential Workers
VanGo Unity Poster, Artwork by Katie D. age 18
“Essential Worker” was never a huge part of the human vernacular until the pandemic called Covid-19 raised its pernicious head and began to ravage and divide our country. Now, like the first responders after 9-11, essential workers are being upgraded to hero status.
Many of us have placed lawn signs on our property, thanking those essential individuals such as health care and public health workers. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines essential workers as those who conduct a range of operations and services that are typically essential to continue critical infrastructure operations.
While most of us are shuttering in our homes with loved ones or working from home so as not to pick up Covid-19 and risk the health of our families, there are sectors of workers called “essential” who bravely go to work and take care of the needs of the rest of us.
Critical infrastructure is a broad, umbrella term encompassing sectors from energy to public works, from childcare to hospitals and senior care facilities, non-profits, food production and delivery, and more.
The third quarter issue is always our Impact Issue. And we couldn’t think of anyone making a positive impact on our community right now than Essential Workers; those people and sectors in our local community who are making the sacrifices during our ongoing Covid-19 pandemic to keep our community running safely. Although we cannot cover all of the essential workers, we hope that by highlighting at least some of these local dedicated workers we get an appreciation of their commitment to our community. And, maybe we are beginning to appreciate our friends, our neighbors, and even total strangers who do these jobs, and contribute to our lives in ways we maybe took for granted up until now.
If we are to survive Covid-19 and future pandemics, it is paramount that we recognize that we are dependent on one another and we need to support one another.
We asked VanGo if we could run their Unity poster because the message is so clear: social injustice and systemic racism must end. It is so beautiful and inclusive, caring and healing. We need to take care of one another through this epidemic, and we also need to make sure we keep taking care of each other and see each other as essential to our diverse and beautiful community.
Sincerely,
- Ann Frame Hertzog, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher
Steven Hertzog, Chief Photographer/Publisher
